River
The river here is the Zêzere! It begins at Estrela, towards Tejo, crossing through the South-Estrela territory. From Vales de Rio to Barco, go relaxed. From there begins a treacherous path between meanders. During wet and snowy winters it changes character and colour; grey and muddy, flowing quickly everywhere, invading alluvial fans, where people have been defending since ancient times through wedges and forts, with perpendicular structures to the river breaking its impetus and collecting the silt and sand, the former to fertilize the agricultural lands on the banks called “lodeiros” and the latter for construction work.
The river was many times an obstacle, which until the construction of the first bridges in the mid XX century, it was crossed by temporary jetties and ferries, but it was also a natural road that transported logs downstream. Its driving force was used for mills by diverting channels through levadas until areas protected from floods and watermills in the riverbed, in a similar typology to the mills of Guadiana.